The same "mix" was also present on the Mhz version of the buggies, which have only full speed forward, reduced speed backward, and left/right. As soon as you steer, the throttle it considerablt reduced. Although I did find that the reduction did vary, some buggies corner much faster than others. I thought it was due to the coil and magnet steering on those, but if it's also present on the proportional versions, it's by design. With the ones with no proportional speed control, it really has an advantage as you can use "blipping" the steering to reduce the rpm as you accelerate on a slippery surface. But I fail to see the added value of this when having better speed control. I agree, it's only limiting the options to go spinning.

I checked the speed with the tamiya mini-4wd speed checker.
Both seem to use the same connector and polarity as popular UMicro batteries, like E-flites.

My opinion of both cars:

The buggy:

I have a soft spot for buggys, and this is the coolest looking little thing.

It has headlights that operate when moving forward, taillights for braking/reverse, the esc has forward/reverse/ and a very effective brake.

Swing arm front suspension in the front, motor pod in the rear, all 4 springs are replacable, it seems to use mechanical pencil,clicker pen type springs for the front and slightly larger for the rear. Rear suspension travel is a little compromised in the compression department due to clearance with the chassis/body, but it can articulate ok.

It does have a servo for steering, it is a 5 wire servo with a standard shape servo case, it lays down facing forward.

Top speed 9 k/ph on the speedchecker and 6 k/ph when you turn the wheels or go in reverse. For comparison Mini-Z overlands and monsters did 11 to 12 k/ph on the speed checker.

You can open and completely dissasemble the car (atleast I think so, I really only did that for the chassis and front end.)

The locked diff helps tons for offroading, it doesnt affect anything else other than turning radius and it will push under throttle.

Overall its a neat little chassis, I wish there was an elegant all in one receiver/esc that operates on a 1s lipo to replace the factory servo and electronics.

Since its a buggy the wheels are exposed and will give a lot of kickback to the servo when you bump and crash, my servo slightly stripped in the second charge.

And like most RC vehicles, a tighter turning radius would be nice.

The car:

Its like most mini rc cars with sliding link front suspension and a motor pod in the rear, it has even more compression travel issues than the buggy with the motor pod sticking if you push it down, but it does articulate left and right just fine.

Locked diff makes it plow under power, but boy does this thing have startling acceleration! It hits 12 k/ph really quick.

It has headlights that operate when moving forward, the esc has forward/reverse/ and a very effective brake.

Like the buggy its turning radius could have more travel, unlike the buggy the battery lid has no retension mechanism other than just slightly pressing it in, so unfortunately lots of bumping can loosen the lid and drag on the floor causing the car to spin.

Since this is lighter/smaller/with protected front wheels and small rear wheels, the car seems like it will last much longer with less drivetrain breakage and front servo breakage than the buggy.

The throttle dropping when steering is a downer for racing, but since the car goes so much faster in a straight line it seems like trying to minimize turning and maximize straight line distance would work as a legitimate racing tactic, I had
lots of fun lapping in a 6'x8' RCP track oval, which the car drove perfectly over.

Great update. Thanks Pach. I'm not getting the same sticking in the rear suspension you are. I have the Lamborghini. But I wasn't getting much rear suspension travel, either. I opened it up and moved some wires for the rear lights to the rear of the motor pod and that helped, giving me about half as much travel in the rear as in the front now. My battery cover does have a little tab and I haven't had any problems with it coming loose. I agree about the quick acceleration. They are pretty light. I think I'm going to add a little bit of weight to mine, actually, to make it handle better on low pile commercial carpet because as of now the front end wants to bounce around too much. With any luck a little weight will give it a bit more traction for when the throttle jumps coming out of a turn.

I just picked up one of these cars. I built a 10 by 10 track in my basement. The car is really fun except for when you turn it really slows down. I took it apart to see if there was anything I can do to make it not slow down but unfortunately I don't know enough about electronics to know what I'm looking for. Does any one know how to mod the car so it doesn't slow down when turning?

I just picked up one of these cars. I built a 10 by 10 track in my basement. The car is really fun except for when you turn it really slows down. I took it apart to see if there was anything I can do to make it not slow down but unfortunately I don't know enough about electronics to know what I'm looking for. Does any one know how to mod the car so it doesn't slow down when turning?

I'm afraid the slow-down feature is built into the cars, so you would be looking at having to replace the entire electronics with hobby grade stuff.

If the cars still operate on 2.4 volt Nimh, you could replace it with a small 1s LiPo. This is what I did when our daughter and I got tired of the low cornering speed. It gets a great boost in power, but handling still stays primitive, as we have the MHz version, that has no speed control, and no proportional steering. Eventually we got tired of these limitations, and used the buggy bodies, which are very cool, to the HPI Q32 micro cars. Especially the blue/white buggy body bolts right on with 2 patches of double face tape: